Sports Injury & Rehabilitation

Professional athletes are constantly reaching new heights in their professional careers. With each passing year, new records are shattered and the human body is pushed to new limits. Competitors train rigorously and watch their diets every day. Yet despite the conscientious care and precautions that athletes follow, most experience musculoskeletal injuries at one time or another.

Experts estimate that 90% of all world-class athletes use
chiropractic care to prevent injuries and increase their performance
potential. All National Football League (NFL) teams rely on chiropractors in
varying capacities, and 77%of athletic trainers have referred
players to a chiropractor for evaluation or treatment. You don’t have
to be an athlete to benefit from regular chiropractic care. Here at Lewiston Family Chiropractic, we treat patients from all walks of life,
professions and fitness levels.

Chiropractors and Sports Injuries

Chiropractic care meticulously tends to the needs of the athlete because special attention is given to the spine, joints, muscles, tendons, and nerves. Additionally, chiropractic care ensures that all pieces of the musculoskeletal system are working harmoniously in their healthiest, most natural state.

Athletes recognize tremendous value in chiropractic care because they realize that it helps them maximize athletic performance. Whether you’re an athlete or weekend warrior, receiving chiropractic care will enable you to reach an optimum level of achievement without breaking yourself.

1. Undo the punishment the body takes in sports

Many
athletes swear by the positive effects of chiropractic when talking
about their personal successes. People like Lance Armstrong,
Barry Bonds, Dan O’Brien and Arnold Schwarzenegger, to name a few, swear
by their chiropractors. Athletic performance is affected by a
combination of strength, flexibility, speed and coordination.
Participating in sports is encouraged because of the many benefits. Not
only is a person getting exercise when playing, but they are also
developing fine motor skills, learning about teamwork and fair play and
of course building friendships. But their bodies are also impacted no matter what sport they are playing.

When
the spine exhibits imperfections in movement and/or alignment, the
resulting vertebral subluxations can create focal areas of irritation in
the nervous system, which subsequently interfere with the optimum
functions of all other systems. As a result, athletic performance
suffers. When athletes are adjusted regularly, they often attribute
their success to regular chiropractic care.

2. Chiropractic care treats a variety of sports injuries

Athletes
can experience many different benefits from receiving chiropractic
care. Not only can adjustments help when treating injuries from sports, they
offer other benefits as well. It’s been shown that high-impact sports
can place the same amount of strain on the body as an auto collision.
Athletes getting routine adjustments may notice improved athletic
performance, improved range of motion (especially in endurance
athletes), better flexibility, increased blood flow, and may suffer from
fewer injuries. Because spinal adjustments will reduce the irritation
of the nerve roots between the vertebrae, the healing time from minor
injuries can be shortened, improving performance.

Both high-impact
and low-impact athletes can benefit from routine spinal adjustments.
For high-impact athletes, it increases performance and flexibility and
lowers the risk for injury; for low-impact athletes (golfers, tennis
players, and bowlers), routine adjustments can help relieve the strain
that is being placed on the body. Chiropractic care offers a natural
way to treat and prevent many different ailments that often plague
athletes.

Headaches – with a current focus on head and
neck injuries in sports it should be noted that a Duke University study
from back in 2001 came to the conclusion that, “Spinal manipulation
resulted in almost immediate relief for headaches originating from the
neck.” Since 60-90 % of all headaches are linked to facet joint
pain (neck), chiropractic treatments offer a significant form of
relief.

Shoulder pain – Studies from the Annals of Internal Medicine and the British Medical Journal both found that adding shoulder manipulation to traditional rehab techniques improved the outcomes and reduced pain associated with certain shoulder injuries.

Injury prevention – An
Australian study conducted in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders reported
that Australian football players who used a regiment of chiropractic
care had a fewer number of leg injuries than those who did not.

3. Non invasive/drug free treatment

While
seeking chiropractic care for back and neck pain caused by injuries
suffered in sports like football and rugby would normal, injuries to
other parts of the body can also benefit from a visit to the D.C. In
fact, many
studies
have shown that chiropractic treatment helps athletes recover from
injuries without the need for painkillers or invasive surgery.

While there are many different types of treatments that chiropractors perform on their patients, Ellen Sonnino’s report in US News and World Report discussed four methods that are often used to treat athletes:

Active Release Technique where massage and stretching are combined with moving the effected joint through a range of motion.

Functional Dry Needling where deep trigger points are focused on to release tension in the muscles through stimulation.

Electrical Muscle Stimulation to release tension towards the surface of the muscle using contraction caused by electricity.

Not
all athletes are seeking chiropractic care after they suffer an injury.
Some, like New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, find that it
helps improve not only their health, but their performance,
“Chiropractic just makes you feel so much better. When I walk out of the
clinic, I feel like I’m about three inches taller and everything’s in
place. And as long as I see the chiropractor, I feel like I’m one step
ahead of the game.”

4. Injury Prevention/Performance Enhancement

Any chiropractor who specializes in treating athletes should be prepared to treat the
whole person, and tailor a comprehensive program aimed at injury
avoidance. Initial evaluations should include not only traditional
orthopedic tests, neurological examinations, and consideration to
supplement physical exam findings with any additional diagnostic
evaluations. Numerous studies
support the fact that chiropractic care helps athletes achieve an
optimal level of performance. A Canadian research team included
chiropractic care in the rehabilitation program of 16 injured female
long-distance runners. The runners recovered quickly; seven of them
actually scored “personal best” performances while under chiropractic
care, although there may be other contributing factors.

5. To Decrease Pain

The
spine is an important physical structure that contains many
pain-sensitive tissues: Most notably, joints, muscles, nerves, discs
and ligaments. If there are any abnormal alignment patterns in the
spinal column, this can place an abnormal amount of stress and strain on
any one of these tissues. In a recent article reviewing the
effectiveness of spinal manipulation, chiropractic adjustments were
consistently better than other medical options in reducing the intensity
of acute low back pain, plus restoring normal function, both for
short-term and long-term effects.